Not every NFL game can be great and on Thursday night, we're getting a bit of a stinky nugget from the schedule makers, style-wise at least, when the Steelers meet the Browns to kick off Week 4. Of course, to play devil's advocate to myself: both of these teams are 2-1 and in a four-way tie for first place in the AFC North. As such, the winner of this game could be in first place after a quarter of the way through their season, which is not something anyone expected.
Get a $55 bonus after $25 in trades by claiming the latest Kalshi promo code CBSSPORTS55 here: Given the total here (38.5) and the nature of these two offenses, we probably shouldn't expect a ton of fireworks. But as far as importance for the season, this is a monster game. Plus, we have to stay hot after a nice start to TNF so far this year.
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But we have two division rivals on a short week with a pair of conservative offenses that are also methodical. Both the Steelers and Browns are negative/neutral in terms of pass rate over expectation and both teams would rather control the ball and burn clock. We have a couple of playmakers on each side who could create explosive scoring opportunities, but this is not Lions vs.
We'll just take the obvious angle here and hope things start slow, even if it's not fun to watch. 10-7 or lower at half isn't out of the question at all in a game where just one player has below even-money odds to score a touchdown. Again, we're not expecting a ton of deep shots or long touchdowns in this game, but this line feels too short for a guy who has almost doubled this number in every single game this year with catches of 28, 55 and 46 as his long reception in each of his first three games. Deshaun Watson has looked much better over the last two weeks and has been targeting Boston downfield pretty aggressively.
Todd Monken will absolutely dial up some plays against a vulnerable secondary. Without Rico Dowdle in Week 3, Warren saw a big spike in his carries (up to 17) and production. He'll be afforded that again on Thursday night and in a game where we expect the Steelers to run the ball plenty, Warren should be Pittsburgh's bellcow.
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